Tonga’s government elected a new leader on Tuesday, two weeks after the previous premier resigned abruptly after a power struggle with the Pacific nation’s royal family.
Veteran politician ’Aisake Valu Eke was voted prime minister by secret ballot in parliament, securing 16 votes to his opponent Viliami Latu’s eight.
Eke was first elected to parliament in 2010 and served as finance minister between 2014 and 2017. Former prime minister Siaosi Sovaleni resigned two weeks ago after butting heads with Tonga’s influential King Tupou VI, fuelling speculation of a deepening rift between the monarch and his government.
Oxford-educated Sovaleni, who was prime minister from 2021, resigned just hours before facing a vote of no confidence led by Eke.
Eke, who will be sworn in officially in February, will lead Tonga into the next general elections scheduled for November 2025.
The line of Tongan kings and queens stretches back more than 1,000 years, according to a government history. Although the monarchy no longer enjoys the unbridled power of old, it remains one of the most dominant institutions across the Tongan archipelago.
Tonga overhauled its constitution after pro-democracy protests in 2006 that spiralled into angry riots that left swaths of the capital Nuku’alofa in smoking ruins. The Tongan king until then had held immense sway as head of state, head of government, and military commander-in-chief. The monarchy eventually agreed to devolve much of its responsibility to a cabinet of elected lawmakers but its power has not been totally diluted.
The king still has the power to veto legislation and appoints the prime minister on the advice of parliament.
A developing country of 106,000 people spread across dozens of islands, Tonga’s debt-laden government is seen as particularly vulnerable to economic pressure from China.
The island kingdom owes China’s export bank about $130m – almost a third of its GDP – which it was loaned to help rebuild after the 2006 riots. Repayments on that loan were scheduled to start spiking this year.